The Ministry of Justice has refused to confirm fears that youth jails have reached capacity or outline its contingency plans to deal with the situation amid concerns that children's lives are being put in danger through overcrowding.

New MoJ statistics show that, as of midday yesterday (17 August), 259 juveniles had appeared in court in relation to rioting, with potentially many more to follow.

Of these, 121 were granted bail, 22 convicted and 86 remanded in custody with the details of 30 not being recorded, meaning as many as 138 additional children are now behind bars.

Based on the latest overall custody figures available (for June), there were 2,253 children in youth jails with space for just 141 more prior to the riots.

The recent increase would place the system on the brink of being officially full with many more court cases still to come, but the MoJ and YJB have both refused to confirm whether capacity has been reached, or reveal details of how they are planning to deal with rising numbers of children in custody.

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